9 If only my head were a pool of water for all my people who have been slaughtered. 2 Oh, that I could go away and forget my people a pack of treacherous liars. 3 “My people bend their tongues like bows says the LORD. 4 “Beware of your neighbor! and friend slanders friend. 5 They all fool and defraud each other; they wear themselves out with all their sinning. 6 They pile lie upon lie says the LORD. 7 Therefore, this is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: What else can I do with my people? 8 For their tongues shoot lies like poisoned arrows. while scheming in their heart to kill them. 9 Should I not punish them for this?” says the LORD. “Should I not avenge myself against such a nation?” 10 I will weep for the mountains the birds and wild animals have all fled. 11 “I will make Jerusalem into a heap of ruins,” says the LORD. with no one living in them.” 12 Who is wise enough to understand all this? Who has been instructed by the LORD and can explain it to others? Why has the land been so ruined that no one dares to travel through it? 13 The LORD replies, “This has happened because my people have abandoned my instructions; they have refused to obey what I said. 14 Instead, they have stubbornly followed their own desires and worshiped the images of Baal, as their ancestors taught them. 15 So now, this is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: Look! I will feed them with bitterness and give them poison to drink. 16 I will scatter them around the world, in places they and their ancestors never heard of, and even there I will chase them with the sword until I have destroyed them completely.” 17 This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: Send for the women who mourn at funerals. 18 Quick! Begin your weeping! Let the tears flow from your eyes. 19 Hear the people of Jerusalem crying in despair, because our homes have been torn down.’” 20 Listen, you women, to the words of the LORD; teach one another how to lament. 21 For death has crept in through our windows and young men no longer gather in the squares. 22 This is what the LORD says: No one will be left to bury them.” 23 This is what the LORD says: or the rich boast in their riches. 24 But those who wish to boast I, the LORD, have spoken! 25 “A time is coming,” says the LORD, “when I will punish all those who are circumcised in body but not in spirit— 26 the Egyptians, Edomites, Ammonites, Moabites, the people who live in the desert in remote places, and yes, even the people of Judah. And like all these pagan nations, the people of Israel also have uncircumcised hearts.”